What will happen to We Make Zines?

I saw on Tech Crunch yesterday that Ning will be ending its free service to its users. Free networks will be forced to pay or move their networks elsewhere. This made me wonder what will happen to this community. I just found it, and I would hate to see it die!

Sorry if this was already brought up. I was just curious if people knew about it or not.

Replies to This Discussion

Do you honestly think people would be upset if you started a petition to try to make WMZ free? Maybe you can make a poll now just to ask folks would a petition like the one below be OK.

Here is a draft of that petition. It would look this:

To: Ning.com Administration and to Members of the Media Worldwide
We Make Zines (WMZ) at www.wemakezines.ning.com is an online community that gives free access to people. Many, not all, of our members are financially disadvantaged. WMZ is not part of any institution or organization and all of the undersigned people feel that WMZ should be granted free of charge access to Ning for the next ninety years. Many of our members are writers, publishers and members of various levels of the media (Do-It-Yourself media, not-for-profit media and other forms) and we feel that Ning should grant WMZ an exception to their proposed fee hikes which represent and undue burden on WMZ. We, the undersigned feel Ning should allow WMZ to remain on Ning free of charge for the next ninety years free of charge.

Sinncerely,
The undersigned
--------------------------

and you just put that on one of the countless free online petition services. Then you email it to all 2,400 members of WMZ like you did for the donation request. Then you put a link in the middle of WMZ like you did for the donation request. Then everyone else asks their friends to sign it too and we all put a link on our twitter, websites and more. Then we see if we WMZ gets free service or if Ning truly is the heartless corporation that people are starting to think it is. If those online petitions can bring back multimillion dollar TV shows that TV networks have cancelled, and they've done it many times... those petitions can help WMZ get free service.

Folks might criticize this petition but you can change it as you see fit or put up a poll. I honestly don't think anyone would mind if you sent their money back if the petition works or maybe you all find something else constructive to do with it. Plus if the petition doesn't work, then you just pay Ning like you were going to do. But you still have a few months.

WMZ has been running free ads for NIng since the start and it is not asking too much for them to give back to the people a little.

Also, you never know, some one with lots of funds might see all the people signed to the petition and contact you to pay for the Ning fees (I'm talking about the $50 a month so WMZ doesn't have to give up the WMZ video upload ability and lose WMZ videos like these) so you don't have to ask the folks here. WMZ members should not have to pay NIng almost $20 a month for less services (no video uploads? no music uploads? no API advanced technology when Twitter and everything else is going API?) as is the current plan. So wrong. That is so backwards. Donors helping people happens all the time when thousands of people want the same thing bad enough and it is a worthy project and we all lift up our voices at the same time.

Keep up the great work,

Love, peace

Krissy PonyBoy Press said:

Free School Community. Thanks for the ideas. I thought about all of them. Donations were given to WMZ for the purpose of continuing on Ning for the next year. After that time we can look at it again and I can create a poll to get people's ideas. Thanks, Krissy

It should be explained on the front page. Ning is charging for the service now and there was a call for donations several days ago. Enough was raised to keep us on Ning for the next year. Next year I will look at it again and will either ask for donations again or possibly move the network.

Thanks, Krissy

Amy said:

I saw mention of paying for accounts. Was that going to be true or was it just a call for donations?

I'm bailing out... I can wait until the request for payment due. Love you guys. I don't make no money as is. I'm a low life who reads. I'll wave bye bye when the time comes, may dreaded ending never may... adieu